Stone cenotaphs from the sultanates of western India: Seriality, creativity and community in commemorative micro-architecture

Abstract

This paper examines the production of stone-carved cenotaphs from Chanderi and Mandu in the region of Malwa, in relation to those carved for Muslim communities in Patan (Gujarat), Thatta (Sindh) and Thalner (Khandesh), in order to identify patterns of artistic circulation between distinct yet contiguous sultanates of western India. The localisation of Islam in the provinces of the Delhi Sultanate during the fourteenth century led to the proliferation of funerary complexes (maqbarā, rawza, dargāh, qabristan) with a vast number of richly carved cenotaphs (qabr, mazār, ta‘wīdh) belonging to distinctive design templates. Despite their double importance for the histories of Islamic art and Muslim communities, the cenotaphs of western India have merited little systematic study of their formal typologies and ornamental vocabularies, which appear fully formed and endure as such over several centuries. Notwithstanding their ubiquity, the serial production of cenotaphs points to preferences for specific models in the construction of Muslim communities, the creativity of local sculpture workshops, and the adaptation of micro-architectural design in the wider western Indian zone. This presentation will chart the broad categories of stepped, arched, and casket-type cenotaphs, with or without a headstone, and track the emergence of prestigious models, their spheres of influence, intersection and adaptation.